The reluctant protagonists
by istina1268
Summary: The history of Lisa Rain Shepard and Liara T'Soni before they meet each other on Therum. It starts in February 2164 when Shepard is 9.
1. The trip home

_This is my first piece of fiction…ever. I write for some science publications, so any criticisms and suggestions are welcome. I may be sporadic with chapter submissions, so please be patient. I hope to put up at least one per week. Hope you enjoy!_

Clear blue eyes gazed out the side window of the sky car, taking in the snowy landscape over the rural part of Michigan, one of the few agricultural areas left in North America. Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major plays softly over the car's sound system. A few tracks left by roaming animals could be seen crossing each other in the distance. The girl was hoping to see a rabbit or even a deer. She had glimpsed them before on the trip home from Detroit, but not today. The commute to schools became necessary in the mid-21st century when many of them had to close due to lack of funding. She shifted her eyes to the sunrise, pink wispy clouds tracked to where the orange ball was just starting to peak over the horizon. A yawn was threatening to surface when a flash caught her attention high in the sky. "Mom?" she queried before her head hit the side of the car. She cried out, her mom's arm pushing her back in her seat as the ground quickly approached.

Hands were holding her down, trying to put something heavy on her. She opened her eyes, screaming as pain overwhelmed her whole body. Four people were gathered around her trying to hold her still, bright lights behind them. She screamed for her mother, kicking her feet and arching her back to get the hands off her. "Stop it hurts!" she tried to yell but it came out a primal garble. Realizing the people around her could not understand she fought harder, one of the hands holding her arm lost grip and she tried to push off the table. She wanted her mom, she would understand. Why did it hurt so much? She felt a stab in her hip, and the room faded to darkness.

When she wakes she was on her left side, a plastic lamb with plastic flowers coming out of its back came into focus on a night stand near her bed. She frowns at the lamb, probably her dad's idea of a joke. He knows she hates things like that, hates being treated like a little kid. She was almost 10, and she will have to help take care of her little sister soon. She looks around, signs on the walls, beeping from something behind her, this is not her room. She can smell disinfectant…a hospital. She remembers what happened, tries to sit up, her head spins and she lies back down. She looks around again, a tube is sticking out of her arm, she tries to say something but her teeth are wired shut. A hiss comes out of her mouth. She brings her free right arm up to her face, and feels bandages over her right jaw and left eye. She wonders if she will have any scars, it will impress her soccer team.

The door opens and a nurse walks in. "Good you're awake…Thirsty?" She hits the controls on the bed to put the bed in The Fowler's position, knowing the answer before the reply.

Shepard nods her head, she still can't figure out how to talk through her wired teeth. The nurse brings a cup of water with a straw. She has to fit the straw in the small gap between Shepard's front teeth. She closes her lips around the straw and sucks the water in with a little too much eagerness, it sprays back out between her teeth, and some dribbles down her chin. She stops immediately, embarrassed.

"You'll have to seal the straw to the top of your mouth with your tongue because with your teeth like this you can't use them to grip," instructs the nurse as she wipes the girl's chin.

_Thanks captain obvious, _thinks the young Shepard, rolling her eyes. She motions for the straw again, this time managing to keep the water in her mouth. She wishes she could wet her lips, she can feel they are cracked. "Chpshck?" she manages through her teeth. The nurse doesn't understand and shrugs her shoulders, "What?" Shepard points at her lips, thinking the gesture might help and repeats slower, "chipshick?"

"Oh, yeah let me see if I can find some," the nurse says and starts searching the stainless steel drawers in the room. As she is searching Shepard's dad walks into the room holding a foam cup with a straw coming out of it. His green eyes light up as he smiles, with his freckles and red hair it makes his face look much younger than he is, much like the old puppet Howdy Doody. It is almost comical. "Hey, kid! Glad you're awake I was hoping you were, brought you this," he points to the cup in his hand.

The nurse frowns, "she really should stick to the diet the hospital has for her. It will help her recover faster."

"What could POSSIBLY make her recover faster than a Boston Cooler from Halo Burger?" he grins.

Shepard tries to grin, but the action hurts, and it makes her flinch. The nurse takes that as in indication that the girl does not want the drink and says so while she goes about trying to find some lip balm in the room. Shepard looks at her dad, he knows the expression. She is already frustrated with the nurse. "Don't worry, kid, I know you love these things, especially when you're sick. What's she looking for?" he crooks a thumb toward the nurse. "Chpshick," Shepard replies, she is already starting to learn the mechanics of speaking through her teeth.

"Oh, here I have some in my pocket, always do in the winter," he pulls out a tube and hands it to his daughter. She grabs it with and gratefully rubs some on her parched lips. "Drink," she replies pointing at the cup as her dad takes back the tube. She really does love the concoction of Vernor's ginger ale and ice cream.

"She really shouldn't have that," the nurse says over her shoulder as she starts toward the door. "I'll get Doctor Shaw, she wanted to know when you woke up." The nurse leaves the room.

"I thought she'd NEVER leave!" Robert Shepard says dramatically, rolling his eyes as he hands the drink to his daughter. Lisa Shepard giggles, which hurts and makes her flinch again, almost dropping the cup. Her dad can always make her laugh. He grabs for the cup, but Lisa already has it and is trying to fit the straw between her teeth. It is a difficult task with her left hand taped to a board to keep the tubes in her left arm stationary. Her dad gently reaches in and inserts the straw in the gap. She inhales greedily, too much so and almost chokes as the bubbles from the ginger ale go up her nasal passages. Her dad laughs, it is somewhat of a ritual to do that with the drink.

As the young Shepard stops coughing the doctor enters the room "Good evening young lady, how are you feeling?" She walks to the foot of the bed and grabs the chart eyeing the girl with the drink over the clipboard. "Bedder already, when kin I go home?" the girl replies around the straw, not willing to try to insert it again. She hates hospitals, and spends entirely too much time in them. She's always trying new things and pushing it just a bit too far.

The doctor stares sternly into the little girl's blue eyes _how could someone that young have such intense eyes? _She thinks. "I assure you we will get you out of here as quickly as possible. You, however, have to follow doctor's orders or I cannot guarantee a quick discharge." Lisa grins at the doctor, she has always liked Doctor Shaw. She doesn't treat or talk to her like a baby. "Deal." She agrees.

The doctor pulls over a chair next to the bed to talk to two Shepards, now that she has their attention. She addresses Lisa directly, she knows the girl likes it when she is treated like someone who is older and her father already knows his daughter's condition and estimated recovery times. "You have a slight concussion, a compound fracture of your right mandible, a fracture to your left fourth finger proximal and middle phalanx, several lesions on your head and neck, and severe contusions on your chest, and head. What this means, young lady, is that while you will be up and walking soon, you are not to be running, having wheelchair races while in the hospital, or playing any sports for at least 4 weeks until that jaw heals. We cannot use any bone regenerating devices on your jaw, you are growing quickly right now and because of that it has to heal on its own."

Lisa can't help the look of disappointment on her face. "Bid the hockey playiffs sdard nixd week!" she complains. The doctor smiles, "four weeks," she emphasizes. She knows the girl will talk her and her parents into three weeks, she should be healed enough by then with the medigel treatments she will be getting, but she doesn't want Lisa starting any earlier, so she gave the estimate of four. Lisa complains under her breathe for a bit, but then her eyes go wide and she looks at her dad and the doctor with shock and concern. "Whid aboud mom?!"


	2. Chapter 2-A Father's Wisdom

_Ok – Chapter 2. Please feel free to critique. I have no idea what I am doing… _

Robert Shepard calmed his daughter with a hand on her shoulder. "Mom's ok, Lisa. She's just in another room." "We can move you together until you are released tomorrow if you like," stated Doctor Shaw. "With as often as you are in here, young lady, the nursing staff will be ok with that." Lisa nodded her head in agreement. "Ok, Robert, please come with me so we can arrange that." Shaw wanted to talk to the elder Shepard away from his daughter about his wife.

They walked out into the hall and around the corner toward Hannah's room. The hospital had been recently remodeled, the floors and walls looked like wood, and the lines of the hallways were soft. The idea was to make the environment seem not so sterile. Having relaxed patients and staff was proven to help with treatment and recovery. Robert sensed what Shaw wanted by getting him out of the room. "So what is the prognosis doctor?"

"Hannah is going to be fine. The transport as you have been notified had an eezo leak. We will have to monitor the fetus closely for the next few months of the pregnancy to see if there will be any complications."

"There's that word again…complications."

"As you know when the transports in China crashed in 2151 it affected unborn children. Most were fine, some had birth defects, and some later displayed biotic abilities. Since there have been indicators to determine affected and unaffected children. I assure you we will do everything we can to make sure Hannah and your daughter will be fine. I am working with obstetrics to set up future tests and appointments."

Robert sighed, "I'm sorry doctor, I know you are doing your best. It is not every day that my wife and child are involved in an eezo transport _accident._"

Shaw raises her eyebrows. "You think it was not an accident?"

"Let's just say that they have gotten a little too frequent for me to think there isn't something else going on."

Shaw did not want to pursue this line of conversation; she knew it only lead down a dark road. She continued to Hannah Shepard's room. Robert followed, deep in thought.

August 2164 – Traverse City, Michigan

Hannah and Robert Shepard watch as Lisa sprints across the pitch to control an errant pass, her platinum pony tail streaming behind her. Hannah is holding Lindsay, their second child. None of the preliminary tests have shown anything unusual about her, but her yellow irises, although beautiful, seem unnatural.

"I've been thinking," says Robert

"I thought I smelled smoke," laughs Hannah, "better stop, no fire plugs nearby."

"Ha-ha," he fake-scowls in her direction. He could never be truly upset with her. He looks at her profile as she watches their oldest daughter. _She is so beautiful, _he thinks. _Blonde hair, perfect pale skin, blue eyes…Lisa has her eyes…_he blinks and resumes what he was saying. "I have been reading on the extranet about children that were exposed to eezo being taken away from their parents, some government program for potential biotics. There is no way I will ever let that happen to Lindsay."

Hannah looks at him startled, "That could never happen! I suppose because you read it on the extranet it must be true," she snaps at him.

"No, especially if we get off Earth," he ignores her snarky comment. "There are colonies looking for communications specialists like you, and even no-talents like me. I have even looked into specific planets. Mindoir has several developing cities that would give us land, build us a home, and guarantee us both a job."

"We both have great jobs here. No-talent? Haven't you played at The Ark, The End, The Hideout, Irving Plaza, and The Bowery in the last two months? And you are scheduled to be at the Troubadour next week. And what about Lisa's education? She is ready to start 9th grade next year, as a 10-year old. She has to be in that accelerated Alliance program school or she will be dumped in with kids much older than her and that's not a good idea. She already doesn't have any friends outside of her soccer team."

"It will be a chance for her to start over. She's only 9, but she's a smart-ass Hannah, everyone here knows it. She has that group with soccer just because she has been with them for so long. They used to try to be friends; hell even looked up to her. But now I can see the way they merely put up with her. Lisa knows, too. She is always trying to impress some of them with her edgy behavior, always going over the top. It's one of the reasons she is always getting hurt. You know it, I know it she knows it. A colony world will have ways for her to stretch her mind, they might not have the latest tech like the Alliance school, but they have to be innovative to use the tech they have to fit their needs. It could be just what she needs, just what we need, Hannah. We are stagnating here."

"We'll talk about it more, later." Out of the corner of her eye she sees her eldest daughter caught by an obvious trip while she is running as hard as she can to get into the next play. She seems to fly for several meters, she is just about to land on her left shoulder when she tucks it and rolls for another several meters before coming to a stop in a crouch, facing the culprit who made her fall. Hannah can see the fire of anger in her daughter's eyes, but it is quickly extinguished by the young girl as she gets her head back in the game, and runs to the end of a pass, dribbles the ball to edge of the goal box, and puts it in the net. She turns and glares at the boy who tripped her with her hands folded across her chest. Her teammates jump on her in celebration of the goal. She high-fives a couple and walks back to the mid-field mark. She smiles at some of them, but the smile doesn't reach her eyes, they have turned gray with determination. Hannah knows this look; the opposing team is going to pay for that boy's mistake.

Lisa sat on the pitch with her legs out in front of her, a wedge of orange stuck between her teeth. Her coach looks down at her freckled face as he sets an energy drink down next to her. "Four goals in the last 15 minutes of the match, what got into you kid?" She shrugs, rips the pulp of the orange from its skin, and grabs the energy drink while shaking out her legs. The coach frowns, he can't figure her out. She could be the leader of the team, the captain, but she purposely isolates herself from team celebrations and any kudos her teammates try to give her. Shepard could move on to the junior leagues next year. She is under minimum age and small, but fast, mature, and talented enough to make it work if she could lead her team instead of isolating herself. He shakes his head, "The team is going to Mancino's for pizza to celebrate. Make sure you tell your parents." She nods in acknowledgment, but he knows she will not attend. The coach walks over to where the rest of the team is celebrating together.

"Rain!" Robert Shepard scoops his daughter off the ground and spins around with her, spilling half her energy drink in the process. "Dad!" she yells with mock scorn, but the smile on her face betrays her. She shrugs and dumps the rest of the drink on her dad's head, laughing. "Hey! No Fair!" he protests.

"What? Just living up to my name. Besides, it matches your hair."

"Why I oughta!" he shakes his head spraying some of the energy drink onto her as he tackles her, tickling her ribs.

"All right now, children, try to control yourselves a little more in public." Hannah smiles as she walks up holding Lindsay.

"Aw, mom!" Robert whines. Lisa cannot respond, out of breathe from laughing due to her father's tickling torture.

"Let her up, Bob, she needs to be able to walk back to the sky car, unless you want to carry her." She looks down at Lisa still trying to catch her breath. "Is the team going anywhere to celebrate? After that game they should be throwing a gala in your honor."

"Mancino's," Lisa answers, making it clear she is uninterested.

"Rain, why don't you ever want to be around other kids? I can see that some of them look up to you and they want you to hang out, but you give them the cold shoulder. They think you're a snob."

"Kids are boring." Lisa turns to walk back to the car. "I guess I am a snob, but all they wanna talk about is stupid vids and cram as much sugar into their mouths as they possibly can. None of them know anything about FTL drives or how eezo cores work. Lucas doesn't even know how to use an omni-tool," she snorts derisively.

"Lisa Rain Shepard, I did not raise you like this! We are going to Guido's, and you are going to treat your teammates like your peers, not your subjects." Hannah catches up to Lisa and grabs her by the arm, turning the girl so she has to look at her mother. "Understood?"

"Yes, Ma'am," Lisa states flatly, eyes going gray.

"Rain?" Robert says with concern. "We will talk in the sky car ok?"

"Yeah, sure."

Lisa sits in the front of the sky car with her father. She waits for him to get the destination programmed in so he can engage the auto pilot and start their "Talk." Staring down at her hands, she begins to rub at a grass stain on her shorts she must have gotten during her fall. Robert finishes the programming and focuses his attention on her. "So what is really bothering you, Rain?"

"The usual," she replies, keeping her focus on the grass stain.

"The usual," her father sighs, "not very forthcoming for a 9-year-old with the weight of the world on her shoulders. Point me in the right direction."

Lisa slumps her shoulders, she knows her father will not relent until she tells him everything on her mind. "You saw the kid who tripped me?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, he is in my classes at the Alliance school."

Robert nods and waits.

"He is a couple of years older than I am, and he was the youngest in the class until I came along. I guess he thought he was a real hot-shot, but the older kids at the school kinda shut him out. Well, I picked up on that, and some of the stuff the kid was doing, they were cool…some good ideas. The older kids were trying to let me in with their group, but I told them only if they let Ayman in too. They pretty much said fat chance. I didn't know what Ayman had done to or with them before I got there. So I kept going back to Ayman and trying to do stuff with him. He was kinda cold the whole time, listened to me, but didn't say much. Then I saw a mistake he made in one of his designs for an improvement to the school's comm system. I only knew about it because of some of the schematics I had seen mom working with. He could have missed it from just oversight, I wasn't saying he was dumb or anything…and he went off! Told me he didn't need help from some 'baby' and I should mind my own business…told me to leave him alone…and stormed off. "

"That's tough…anything else?"

"After that he started targeting me. He got some of the kids from the younger classes, they follow him like he's a god or something…and they will do stuff like mess up my work station, hack my tool kit locks and leave my tools in places I am not supposed to go…just stuff that gets me into trouble sometimes. I think some of the instructors know, but they haven't done anything to stop it. The kids in my class know, but when I said they had to include Ayman they kinda turned their backs on me too. So…Alliance school sucks…and soccer sucks now, too. I heard he started playing, but I was hoping it was a rumor."

"If he is the only one in the league that is giving you trouble, it shouldn't be hard to avoid him."

"One of the kids on my team and two on his are part of his little minions."

"You still have kids on your team that look up to you, Rain, you know that."

"Yeah," Lisa snorts, "Lucas, who picks his nose all the time, and Irina…who tried to kiss me once...so gross."

Her father has to hold back a laugh, this is supposed to be a serious conversation and if he does that he knows it will turn into his usual joking session with his oldest daughter. "I expect more from you, Rain. They look up to you, and you should not use that respect against them. Lucas is the best midfielder on your team, gave you two good passes that you put into the back of the net…and Irina, well I saw her take out Ayman in the backfield after he tripped you. She tried to kiss you?" What Lisa just said dawns on him, "Aren't you both a little young for that kissy-face stuff?"

"Yes, we are!" Lisa scrunches her nose, "I think she is really confused. We were getting along really well and she doesn't have many friends either. I think some older kid told her if you really like someone that is what you do."

"Well, you should talk to her about it not shut her out. If things like that continue with her you need to let me know, because it could be something else…ok?"

"Ok, dad."

"Rain, you can't predict how people act, but you can control how you respond. That is what really matters."

Lisa smiles up at her dad as the sky car pulls into a parking space near the pizza parlor. After they exit, Lisa gets Lindsay out of the car seat while Robert helps Hannah out of the back. As they all walk in, Lisa hands Lindsay to her dad with a nod, and walks over to the table where she joins her team. The coach walks over to the table holding two pitchers of soda, looks at Lisa, shocked, looks up at her parents, and grins as Robert nods in his direction.


End file.
